Taken and Delivered - Southern Water, Southern Power - page 128

flict in Vietnam. 13 Nonetheless, by 1968, congressional members approved legislation and
created the National Wild and Scenic River System. The act immediately protected eight
rivers (and four tributaries); slated twenty-seven as “study rivers,” including the Chattooga;
and requested reports describing the characteristics that made study rivers worthy of desig-
nation. 14 The Craigheads had successfully shepherded a new land management designation
through Congress to benefit the nation's rivers and those intent on solving water problems.
While wild and scenic river proponents like the Craigheads worked with Senate col-
leagues in the early 1960s to produce the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, the U.S. Department
of the Interior announced a national “Wild River Study” of twelve rivers. In 1964, Interior
staff tasked the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service with executing an investigation
that included the Savannah River's Georgia and South Carolina tributaries. 15 Secretary of
the Interior Stewart Udall was well aware of the Corps' plans for hydroelectric dams in Sun
Belt river valleys, and of Duke Power's specific proposal to build Lakes Jocassee and Tox-
away plus the adjacent Oconee nuclear power station. 16 Udall “strongly” believed “that at
least one major tributary of the Savannah River—the Chattooga—should be preserved in
its free-flowing condition for the benefit of future generations and for the purpose of giving
needed balance to the comprehensive development of this river.” 17 At this juncture in 1965,
the Department of the Interior went on record and recommended that any corporate or fed-
eral agency seeking approval to build any dam in the Chattooga River valley be denied a
Federal Power Commission license. But Udall and the Department of the Interior were not
the only ones interested in protecting the Chattooga in the 1960s.
Georgians and South Carolinians joined the initiative as Udall promoted a national wild
rivers study group. Jack Brown, the Mountain Rest (S.C.) postmaster, wrote Congressmen
W. J. Bryan Dorn (D) claiming that he was “born and raised here near the Chattooga River”
and that he thought a fully designated wild and scenic river would be good for the re-
gion. Brown expressed a keen interest in how “tourist potential” might be developed. But
he supported Forest Service acquisition of additional land only if such land was necessary
for “something like the National Wild River System which I understand will preserve and
develope [ sic ]” the property for recreation. Brown's correspondence exposed his opinion
that the National Forest Service's general land management process could limit timber cut-
ting, and thus forestry-related jobs, but the wild and scenic river idea seemed to balance
recreational jobs and preservation. 18 Other conservationists such as Ramone Eaton also ac-
ted on behalf of the Chattooga's watershed. Eaton—a pioneer in southeastern boating cul-
ture, a former Atlanta educator, and then an American Red Cross executive in Washington,
D.C.—reminded Greenville, S.C., attorney C. Thomas Wyche in 1967, “You may remem-
ber that the Toxaway Gorge area was lost to the Duke Power [Company's dams and reser-
voirs] because of the complete indifference of the South Carolina citizenry.” 19 Wyche also
encouraged Congressman Dorn and counterpart Senator Ernest F. Hollings (D) to support